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Francine Frensky

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Francine Frensky
Francine 706b.png
Age 8[1] 9 (Arthurs First Day)
Grade 3rd
Gender Female
Animal Monkey[2]
Birthday Within the Pisces zodiac sign[3]
Winter[4]
Soon after Lisa's birthday party[5]
Eye color Brown[6]
Hair color Brown
Complexion Peach (Living Books)
Light brown (s1-s5)
Brown (s6-present)
Favorite color Red[7][8][9]
Purple (second favorite)[10]
Residence Westboro Apartments, Elwood City
Family Oliver Frensky (father)
Laverne Frensky (mother)
Catherine Frensky (older sister)
Bubby (maternal grandmother)
Bubby's husband (maternal grandfather)
Francine's grandfather (paternal grandfather)
Nana (maternal or paternal great-grandmother)
Vingo Frensky (great-great-grandfather)
Seth (cousin)
Seth's mother (aunt)
Seth's father (uncle)
Francine's cousin (cousin)

Book debut Arthur's Nose
Cartoon debut "Arthur's Eyes"
Voiced by Jodie Resther (1996-present)
Marcella Evans (Living Books games)

Francine Alice Frensky[11] is the daughter of Oliver and Laverne Frensky, and the sister of Catherine Frensky. She is an athletic girl in Mr. Ratburn's third grade class at Lakewood Elementary School.

Physical appearance

Francine is an anthropomorphic monkey with a brown complexion. She has short brown hair with a bobcut hairstyle, which she puts barrettes on to pin it up (her clips are red in the books, but yellow in the cartoon show).

She is typically seen wearing a red shirt, blue jeans, red and white sneakers, white socks and doesn't wear any shirt underneath like some of her friends.

Her sleepwear is a cream-colored pajama top with a big light green #1 on the front and light green pajama pants with stripes.

Her swimwear is a yellow maillot. In the summertime, she often wears a yellow T-shirt with a red stripe in the middle and on the sleeves and a pair of red shorts. Her formal clothes consist of a pink collar blouse, gray pants and white shoes.

In later seasons, her formal clothes are changed to a white blouse, a black necklace, red pants and black shoes. In Season 1, she originally wears a pink T-shirt, blue overall shorts, pink socks and brown shoes.

Her basketball uniform consists of an orange T-shirt and yellow shorts, which both have reddish-orange accents, and she has a yellow #5 on the back of the shirt. Her baseball uniform consists of a yellow baseball cap and a yellow T-shirt with the orange #6 on the back, and the LW logo is sometimes shown on the front, and sometimes the front is blank.

Her football uniform consists of a very large white shirt with a black #11 on the front and a red football helmet with a black stripe and white face mask.

During cool weather outside of winter, she wears a black button-up #5 jacket with white sleeves and the #5 on the left front end and on the rear.

During the wintertime, she wears a white stocking cap with a fluffy red ball on top, an orange winter coat, a blue and white striped scarf, white mittens and brown boots.

She also has a pair of Dame Edna-style movie star glasses that are pink in the books, but green in the cartoon show; although they do not have any glass in the frames.

She wears these glasses on occasions in the books: Arthur's Eyes and Arthur's Teacher Trouble; and in the episodes "Arthur's Eyes", "Arthur's Spelling Trubble", and "Sick as a Dog". She hasn't worn those glasses again after Arthur's Teacher Trouble and after the cartoon show's first season.

She originally had completely flat hair down her cheeks in her first appearance in Arthur's Nose, even though Arthur's Eyes and all later books and adaptations have changed her hairstyle into a flip.

She also originally wore dresses in the earliest Arthur books. In Arthur's Valentine and all later books and adaptations, she mostly wore masculine clothes and only wore dresses for extra special occasions like for Picture Day in "Francine's Bad Hair Day" and for her older cousin, Seth’s Bar Mitzvah in "Francine’s Split Decision". Her hair was originally a light brown tone, but became darkened to a medium tone in Arthur's Teacher Trouble and all later books and adaptations.

Gallery

Storytime 1.JPG
The full image gallery for Francine Frensky may be viewed at Francine Frensky/Gallery.

Alternate hairstyles

Even though Francine doesn't like having her hair done like her best friend Muffy does, she has had a few alternate hairstyles in the series. Her signature hairstyle is a straight flip, even though it's not flat. In Arthur's Valentine, she has wavy hair when she becomes Arthur's secret admirer while at a cinema sitting in seat 3B. In "Francine's Bad Hair Day", Muffy urges her to get her hair done for school pictures, and Francine first wants the Prom Queen hairstyle that Muffy was getting. Francine has a dream where she's playing kickball and has super-long hair that can be used to retrieve the ball or reach a base. When Francine checks out the results, she is given a tightly curled hairstyle instead. After "Francine's Bad Hair Day", she has since kept her signature hairstyle. In the end of "The Lousy Week", she and Muffy are both given a buzz cut to eliminate lice from reproducing in their hairs.

  • Francine with a tightly curled hairstyle

  • Francine with super-long hair and bangs in her dream

Past life

When Francine was a toddler, she wore an orange short-sleeved shirt and yellow overalls shorts. Her hair was also a bit shorter when she was a toddler. She started wearing barrettes when she was in pre-school and wore a white shirt, pink pants, and sneakers. When she moved into second grade, she started wearing her usual red long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, and red and white sneakers.

  • Francine as a toddler (4 years old)

  • Francine as a preschooler (4 years old) in the episode "Locked in the Library!"

Future life

As a teenager and as an adult in the future, Francine appears to have grown more feminine by wearing dresses and other feminine clothing despite not liking to wear dresses. Also, her hairstyle is slightly different when growing up. As an elderly woman, her hairstyle is the same as when she went to Lakewood Elementary School and she's wearing a light teal blouse jacket, a white blouse with a pendant underneath the jacket, a periwinkle dress and white high-heeled pumps; and is wearing barrettes again. She also appears to be married to Arthur on many futuristic occasions.

  • Francine as a teenager

  • Francine as an elderly woman

Other media

In the Living Books computer games like Arthur's Teacher Trouble and Arthur's Birthday, which are both based on their respective books and even predate the cartoon, Francine had light auburn hair and a pale cream-colored complexion. Francine's voice sounded less masculine in those two games and was voiced by Marcella Evans before the cartoon show replaced her with Jodie Resther.

In the later games during the 32-bit era of computers and software such as Arthur's Thinking Games, her appearance was the same as she looks in the cartoon show.

Personality and skills

Francine complaining to Arthur about Muffy ignoring her regarding Chanukah

Francine is very athletic and loves sports, especially soccer, football, kickball, bowling, and baseball. The only sports she doesn't excel at are badminton and figure skating (which she dismisses as "girly", despite being a girl herself).

Francine is very determined, perhaps even restless, and if she doesn't have an immediate knack for a certain sport or skill, she can become frustrated.

Arthur once described her as a "sore winner." She also likes horses, and once accompanied Harry Mills to a horse race. She envies Catherine because she is a better horse rider. ("Francine Frensky, Olympic Rider".)

Francine is an excellent singer and drummer. However, she can't do both at the same time very well. Even though Francine does fairly well in school, she does struggle from time to time.

At one point she even resorts to plagiarizing an entire paper (even though one must note she didn't know that it was wrong at the time, and had a nightmare of herself 20 years older where she was being sued for plagiarism).

Though she claims she's the best player in every sport, she is proven wrong in some of them: in baseball, her skills needed plenty of improvement as seen in "Arthur Makes the Team", and in the episode "The Big Blow-Up" where she showed resentment toward the Brain for his superior skills in soccer and when she refused to admit that she was kicking the ball out of bounds and had an attitude when the Brain called her out on it.

She always talks in a masculine, brash tone. At the start of the show, Francine was very rude and hot tempered.

This attitude is attempted to be tamed by a challenge from Muffy, by the entire class rebellion during a play about Thomas Edison, but neither of these lasts permanently. It isn't until Fern Walters makes drawings about Francine, which motivates everybody else to also make drawings about Francine, when Francine starts to calm down. ("Meek for a Week", "Francine Frensky, Superstar", "Draw!".)

Francine also has a soft side. She will try to help her friends if they are having a big problem, but sometimes, if somebody says something about her whilst she's trying to help, Francine sometimes misinterprets it as criticism and leaves the room.

Francine does not like wearing dresses or having her hair done, which she believes would make her look foolish and less like herself as she states in "Francine's Bad Hair Day". She prefers to wear clothes that are normally worn by boys, thus making her a tomboy. Despite that she does not want to have her hair done, her hair length remains the same.

Family

Francine lives with her father, mother and sister, Catherine, in Apartment #3 at Westboro Apartments, with the least amount of living space compared to her friends' homes. She also has a pet cat named Nemo. Francine's extended family (including Bubby) has been seen on a few occasions such as in Arthur's Perfect Christmas, "Background Blues", and "Is That Kosher?". Her father works as a garbage man at the Elwood City Dump, which embarrassed her. Her mother is unemployed and usually stays at home. She is constantly jealous of Catherine for being a more advanced horseback rider ("Francine Frensky, Olympic Rider") and acrobat ("Francine's Big Top Trouble"). She and Catherine also argue over room decorations, letting Catherine move into the living room ("Francine Redecorates"). However, Catherine can be sometimes helpful to her. Her family does not often spend enough time together, although they do enjoy bowling ("The Frensky Family Fiasco"). Her father sometimes calls her "Franky." ("I Don't Want to Wake Up")

Due to her family's poverty, they were unable to replace her old bike she had since outgrown and are left with no choice but to ride her father's old bike that had seen better days, and discard it (which she claims was stolen until she tells the truth). Finally, her father finds it and manages to restore it. ("Stolen Bike")

They are a Jewish family who celebrate Hanukkah in Arthur's Perfect Christmas and Yom Kippur in "Is That Kosher?".

Friends

  • Arthur Read - Arthur is one of Francine's best friends. Though they are best friends, Francine seems to always pick on Arthur, such as calling him a "four-eyes" when he first gets glasses in Arthur's Eyes and a "baby" for not having lost a tooth in "Arthur's Tooth". In some episodes it seems Francine likes Arthur although in the episode "Arthur and the Square Dance" when Francine thinks that Arthur loves her, she says that's the grossest thing she's ever heard although in the end it was revealed that it was just a rumor and Arthur and Francine vow to never let a silly thing like love come between them again. In the episode, "And Now Let's Talk to Some Kids", Arthur and Francine are shown to be an old couple in the future watching the video of them on the Magic Toolbox segment: And Now Let's Talk to Some Kids. According to "Locked in the Library!" from Season 1, they met each other for the first time since preschool during a flashback; but she attended Arthur's third birthday party during a flashback in "Desperately Seeking Stanley" from Season 8, which means the time they met each other for the first time is a retcon.
  • Muffy Crosswire - Francine and Muffy met during second grade and became best friends when they found out they had the same middle name, Alice. They always manage to find something to do together even though they are different in many ways: Muffy is feminine and lives in an exceedingly rich family in an overly spacious estate, while Francine is tomboyish and lives in a rather low-class family in a cramped apartment, and in the episode "Poor Muffy" the wealth differences between the two are revealed. Muffy stands up to Buster Baxter and mistakenly Binky Barnes about Francine's "unfashionable hand-me-downs" and cheap possessions, such as Francine's bicycle in "Stolen Bike". They often clash over Francine's tomboyish attitude or Muffy's selfishness, such as in the episode, "Meek for a Week", "Muffy's New Best Friend", and the TV special, Arthur's Perfect Christmas, but they always make up in the end.
  • Buster Baxter - Buster is a frequent annoyance of Francine, but they maintain a good friendship anyway.
  • Binky Barnes - Binky plays with Francine, Fern, Molly and Mrs. MacGrady as U Stink in "Arthur - It's Only Rock 'n' Roll".
  • Fern Walters - Fern plays with Francine, Binky, Molly, and Mrs. MacGrady as U Stink in "Arthur - It's Only Rock 'n' Roll". In "Draw!" Francine insults Fern by calling her a "mouse."
  • Jenna Morgan - In "The Good Sport", Francine makes Jenna feel guilty about the Athlete of the Year award, but they make up in the end. In "Jenna's Bedtime Blues", Francine is the only one who knows Jenna's secret about her wetting the bed because she also used to wet the bed.
  • George Lundgren - In "Vomitrocious", Francine makes fun of George's nosebleeds but learns her lesson when she vomits. In "Dancing Fools", Francine dances with George.
  • The Brain - They are on the same soccer team, yet they argue in "The Big Blow-Up". Francine tries to give the Brain tips for TV in "And Now Let's Talk to Some Kids", but he's working on his science project.
  • Alex - In "Francine Frensky, Superstar", he‘s one of the reporters in Francine's show about Sir Isaac Newton. In "Elwood City Turns 100!", Alex asks Francine what Elwood City is like today, and she answers him through the closing number "That's Elwood City".
  • D.W. Read - There’s only one episode in which Francine doesn't like D.W. Francine created The Parade Float Club in the episode "My Club Rules" in an attempt to keep D.W. away from them. D.W. took over their club anyways, and Francine blamed Arthur for trying to get D.W. out of the club. The rest of the episodes involving Francine & D.W., to Arthur's annoyance, have the two cooperating with each other. D.W. takes her side in "Locked in the Library!", is invited to Francine's birthday party in "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood" after Lisa doesn't invite her, and in "Arthur's Big Hit" Francine feels very sorry for D.W. after Arthur hit her in the arm. Arthur is embarrassed by D.W. and tries to keep her away from his friends. But Francine insists on knowing what D.W. is talking about, such as in "D.W.'s Imaginary Friend" and "D.W.'s Lost Blankie".

Trivia

  • She’s modeled after Marc Brown's sister, Bonnie,[citation needed] and her last name "Frensky" is a play on author Stephen Krensky's last name,[citation needed] a friend of Marc Brown's.
  • She is voiced by Jodie Resther and is one of the few characters whose voiceover remains unchanged since Season 1.
  • Francine and her family are shown to be Jewish. They celebrate traditional Jewish holidays like Hanukkah and Yom Kippur and are also seen having a Bat/Bar Mitzvah for Francine's cousin, Seth.
  • Francine is a big fan of horses.[12][13]
  • Her favorite color is red as she stated in "And Now Let's Talk to Some Kids".[14]
  • The first sport Francine was seen playing is kickball.
  • In the early Arthur books, Francine was a fanatic of a series known as Rat Woman (a play on Catwoman), but that series has not been seen or mentioned in any of the later books or cartoon show.
  • Her birthday is mentioned in "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood", but the month and day of her birthday have never been confirmed. However, she’s eight-years-old, especially when the episode or book would take place during the second semester of her third-grade year.
  • She enjoys journalism and once started a school newspaper called The Frensky Star.
  • The place Francine wants to visit the most is the World Cup Finals.[15]
  • Francine wants to be a musician, actress, drummer, stage director and soccer star when she grows up.
  • She doesn't like cherry soda.[16]
  • In the Play Maker section on the TV show's website, her shirt color is erroneously referred to as brown when it is actually red.
  • Besides Arthur and his family, Francine is the only character from Arthur's Nose who appears in the television series, making her one of the oldest characters in the Arthur canon.

Appearances

References

  1. ↑ http://pbskids.org/arthur/print/tradingcards/cards.html#pg-francine2
  2. ↑ http://www.pbs.org/parents/arthur/help/answers/faq_friends.html (archived page)
  3. ↑ In "Arthur - It's Only Rock 'n' Roll", Mrs. MacGrady says Francine is a Pisces. The duration of this zodiac sign is on average between February 20 and March 20 in the real world.
  4. ↑ In "The Friend Who Wasn't There", Muffy is shopping from Francine's birthday.
  5. ↑ "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood"
  6. ↑ "Buster's Growing Grudge" (see picture)
  7. ↑ http://pbskids.org/arthur/print/tradingcards/cards.html#pg-francine2
  8. ↑ "Francine Redecorates"
  9. ↑ "And Now Let's Talk to Some Kids"
  10. ↑ Francine Redecorates
  11. ↑ "Arthur and the True Francine"
  12. ↑ "Francine Frensky, Olympic Rider"
  13. ↑ "Francine Goes to War"
  14. ↑ http://pbskids.org/arthur/print/tradingcards/cards.html#pg-francine2
  15. ↑ http://pbskids.org/arthur/print/tradingcards/cards.html#pg-francine1
  16. ↑ "Meek for a Week"



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